Happy Holidays!

It's that time of year again... the holiday season. For me, this means scrambling to find the best sales on the things everyone wants for Christmas. I'm a professional bargain huntress, I find amazing deals all the time. My grandmother says we have the "Clearance Angel" always looking out for us. I used to enjoy Christmas shopping for all my friends and family, but now it's more of a burden, both time wise and financially. I don't find the same joy in spending hours upon hours at the mall looking for that perfect gift. Maybe I feel this way because I have two children now. My excitement has shifted from Macy's sweaters to Toys R' Us. I'm always in search of the coolest Lego set for my son. He's obsessed with Legos. I love Legos because they require careful thought to construct, and they encourage Sean to use his imagination. Grace loves her play kitchen, a garage sale special. She enjoys making us "eggies" and having tea parties. This year I bought her a Bitty Twin American Girl Doll. I'm so excited to see her open the box on Christmas morning! My husband is convinced that I bought the doll for myself more than for our daughter; he's probably right!

This year, I've decided to propose a change to the old Christmas traditions. In light of the dire economic situation, coupled with my genuine lack of time and motivation, I've suggested we have "Secret Santa." Secret Santa is commonly practiced in workplaces. Everyone's name is placed in a hat, and each person selects one name, and that is the only person they are responsible for giving a gift to. I like this idea because instead of buying everyone a small gift, you can pool all that money into one nice gift for one person. I would prefer a single, quality gift over many small trinkets. We'll see how it goes.

Aside from the gift giving headache, I truly enjoy the holiday season. Thanksgiving is great because stuffing is one of my favorite side dishes. We love driving around the neighborhood during Christmas time admiring all the decorations. We also started a new family tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree.
New Years Eve has become a real celebration because it's my daughter's birthday!
I definitely love the holiday season!

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season filled with peace, joy, and happiness!

Vocabulary:

scramble- (verb) to collect or organize (things) in a hurried or disorderly manner
bargain- (noun) something bought or offered at a low price
burden- (noun) that which is borne with difficulty; obligation
obsessed- (adj) to dominate or preoccupy the thoughts, feelings, or desires of (a person)
propose- (verb) to offer or suggest
dire- (ad) dreadful; terrible

Use the 'secret code' below to figure out each vocabulary word:

A        B         C          D         E          F                

23        25          8            10          13           11 
G       H          I          J          K 
7          9             4            26           1     

L       M           N         O         P        

22      12          16         14        19       

Q         R         S          T          U

15         17        18        20        21

V         W        X         Y          Z

24           2           6            5            23

25 21 17 10 13 16 

__ __ __ __ __ __

25 23 17  7  23  4  16

__ __ __ __ __ __ __

10  4  17 13

__ __ __ __

19 17 14 19 14 18 13

__ __ __ __ __ __ __

18  8  17 23 12 25 22 13

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

14 25 18 13 18 18 13 10

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

Grammar Point: Conjunctions

Conjunctions are words used to link phrases and clauses.
There are three types of conjunctions: coordinating, subordinating and correlative.

Match the sentence halves to make a complete sentence. Draw lines between the two.

Both Peter Not only do we want to go Either Jack will have to work more hours That story was Students who do well not only study hard In the end he had to choose

but we have enough money. neither true nor realistic. and I are coming next week. either his career or his hobby. but also use their instincts if they do not know the answer. or we will have to hire somebody new.

Conjunction review 

Here's a great acronym for remembering the common coordinating conjunctions:

FANBOYS:

 Here's a list of Subordinating conjunctions, we use them to introduce dependent clauses:

A correlative conjunction is essentially a coordinate conjunction used in pairs. A correlative conjunction gets its name from the fact that it is a paired conjunction that has a reciprocal or complementary relationship. Correlative conjunctions always join grammatically equal elements (e.g., noun & noun, adjective & adjective, phrase & phrase, clause & clause, etc.). They also lend equal weight to the joined elements; which is to say, one joined element is always equal to but never subordinate to the other. It's interesting to note that the second word of each conjunctive pair is a coordinating conjunction.

Here are a few common examples of correlative conjunctions:
either.... or
neither....nor
both... and